Decision could let Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy maneuver to get Parker's job.

Saying her decision has nothing to do with Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy's reported interest in the job, Rochester Business Alliance president and CEO Sandy Parker said Monday she will delay her retirement, previously set for Jan. 1.

"I've heard all the speculation and I understand this will add to that, but I know nothing about the candidates for this position,'' she said in a phone conversation Monday morning. She said administrative problems raised by enactment of the Affordable Care Act and the arrival of a new mayor in the City of Rochester necessitated her staying in the job a bit longer.

"I'm not putting a date on my leaving, though I do not intend to stay the entire year," Parker said. "There are a lot of things going on in the first quarter of the new year and I believe I should be here while these are dealt with."

The decision to delay retirement could work as a maneuver to allow Duffy to finish his term as lieutenant governor before coming back to Rochester to take the RBA position. Duffy's press office on Monday declined comment.

Under that scenario, Gov. Andrew Cuomo next spring could choose another lieutenant governor candidate for the 2014 re-election campaign and Duffy could finish his term, which ends on Jan. 1, 2015, rather than leave now to succeed Parker on her previous retirement date of Jan. 1, 2014.

“I’m not putting a date on my leaving, though I do not intend to stay the entire year.”

Sander Parker, Rochester Business Alliance president and CEO

Duffy has publicly declined to comment on the speculation that he might assume Parker's RBA position. Cuomo has said that he has no interest in addressing the Duffy situation until next year, when gubernatorial politics takes center stage in New York.

Though he hasn't commented directly on the RBA question, Duffy has made his discomfort with state government and Albany's political culture known.

At the recent Small Business Council of Rochester awards luncheon, Duffy was especially pointed in his remarks about the failures of the state bureaucracy and the tendency in the Legislature to favor downstate interests.

Parker said Monday the RBA search committee decided to suspend its search for a successor when she went to tell members that she wished to stay on in the position into 2014. Parker earned nearly $308,000 in 2010, plus nearly $67,000 in additional compensation, according to the group's income tax forms.

"They had made no offer to any candidate when I spoke to them," Parker said. "They were still in the process of interviewing. I have been completely out of the process. But I went to them because if they made an offer to someone I wouldn't have stayed on."

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In this video from May, 2013, Sandy Parker, president and CEO of the Rochester Business Alliance, talks about why she decided to retire.
Video by Bennett J. Loudon

Edward Pettinella, CEO of Home Properties in Rochester and chair of the search committee, said Monday the panel stopped its search after meeting with Parker a couple of weeks ago. He said the question of whether it will be suspended or restarted depends on how long Parker stays on in 2014. He said the search had "narrowed," but that it wasn't yet at the finalist stage.

He would not say if Duffy was a candidate.

"We were fine with her staying on," Pettinella said. "She's the gold standard when it comes to this position."

The commission's guidelines on compensation requires it to be reported if it includes things of value beyond what may be offered to the general public. Duffy has said the home purchase would be reflected on disclosure forms due next year.

State ethics law also affects any interest Duffy may have in the RBA job.

According to David Grandeau, former director of the state Lobbying Commission, Duffy would have to have notified the governor ahead of any private-sector interviews to ensure there are no conflicts of interest. Cuomo has refused to discuss speculation that Duffy may be seeking the RBA job.

State ethics laws could also apply to Duffy if he were to take the RBA job. The law affecting the state's executive branch, which includes the lieutenant governorship, could bar him from appearing before any state agency on an issue for two years, and it could prohibit him for life from lobbying on any issue on which he worked while in public office.

Pettinella said that it would be a "concern" if an applicant faced restrictions of the sort that "prevents them for being fully engaged in the job."